Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-11-02
UNSURPASSED FERTILITY.
Lands Which for Productiveness Have
No uuxi on the Continent.

pay any one who has the time and inclina
ton to take horse and buggy, or team
and visit the section referred to. Leave
Sacramento early in the morning, take tht
road to Freeport, at which place the broad
expanse of the Sacramento river is frs
met. From that point follow the meander
ings of the river, on the broad and elegan
road on top OF the levee; for distance o.
nearly forty miles. En- route you pas;
through Freeport, Richland, CORTLAND
Onisbo and Walnut Grove. You cross thu
river at the Andrus Island ferry, thence or
the island to the town of Isleton and beyond
until you find yourself nearly opposite the
town of Rio Vista. in Solano county. For
the distance Travelled there is
NOT FIEER DRIVE
In the State, nor can there be found more
productive section in this or any Other
land. 1t is almost a continuous orchard
for the entire distance, dotted here and
there every quarter or half mile with ele-
CANT mansions and coy homes, which
would be credit TO the residence portion
OF any city, and from which can be heard
the soft notes of piano and organ, the
chorus of happy voices, indicative of the
worldly enjoyment and happiness of the
people. Here the thrift and wealth of the
husbandman allows him to indulge in all
the luxuries of life, and for this people and
this section the lines of the poet,
Home, sweet home,
There's no place like home,
1t would seem were especially written. The
stranger is at once captivated by the bright
and intelligent faces of the neat and we'll
dressed children with the beautiful and
well-kept grounds and flower plots that
hot 90, he. i
well-shaded roads over which grass or
weeds are spread to keep down the dust in
summer, and rounded up and graveled for
winter travel. This carriage ride, except in
an occasional spot. is as pleasant as if over
a carpeted floor. There is nothing to mar
the pleasure of the ride, while all around
you is
PANORAMA OF BEAUTY,
Such as nowhere else can be found, nature
here surprising the best efforts of the artist
to reproduce, and defying the descriptive
powers of the writer. To reproduce on
canvas would be vain effort; to attempt
to describe in print the hight of folly. The
tule, or grass, covering of the roadway
serves 10 keep the fruit and trees free from
the dust which is so disagreeable upon the
plain lands and the foliage of the orchards.
the shrubbery and home plants are as
bright and green throughout the year as
they were when last washed by the gentle
April showers. 1t requires no particular
foresight to predict that in few years both
sides of the Sacramento from this CITY to
Rio Vista will be the garden spot of Cali
tornla, and that very few acres of land
will suffice for the support of family in
comfort. All that is requisite is to make
the leyees broad and strong, the material for
which is to be found in inexhaustible
quantities in the river bed.
THE PIERsoN DISTRICT
And the country in the vicinity of Isle
ton demonstrates what can be done, and
when Grand Island, Schoolcraft, Suffer and
others are reclaimed, thousands can live in
comfort on small patches. Grand Island
which contains about 10000 acres inside
the levees, requires but a very little to
make ii a perfectly reclaimed district. II
simply needs that the levee be raised and
widened for distance of five or six miles
on Steamboat slough, the building of a
Golfer dam on the old river side, below Wal
nut Grove, and some work done on the
cross levee at the foot of the island, to
make 1t safe and strong. 1t has been dem
onstrated that on this island there is no
slpage water OF moment to interfere with
the cultivation of the soil which cannot
be successfully stopped by bitches built in
side the leyees leading to the pump at the
foot of the island, which, now intact, has a
reputation of throwing out 10000 gallons
OF water minute. Until some concerted
action Is taken towards permanent recla,
nation, the land owners will continue cut
,ting bitches through the high front land
and lead the sediment into the low tule
basin. We know of instances in the past
fot yxTha no -,
has been
RAISED AS HIGH AS FIVE FEET
By this process, and so long as the levees
remain as they are, with breaks here and
there, this is the only sensible thing to do.
Many landowners have formed separate
districts from those already formed, which
have been declared legal by the higher
Courts. But no doubt all these can be in
duced to join in a general system of recla-
nation if it can be shown that economy
will be practiced in the works, and the
money not squandered in costly engineer
ing and the services of high-paid S1perin-
tendents, whose ideas in regard to what is
necessary do not compare with the actual
experience gained by the intelligent land
owner during years of residence in the
delta of the Sacramento. This is destined
to be the great dairy belt of California,
where four and five crops of alfalfa can be
cut without irrigation. with the METROPOLIS
of the State at its door for market, the
fruit, vegetables, grain, butter, milk, ETC.
being called for at every mans house by
the steamers plying on the river. The
beautiful drives over shaded roads, the
boating parties, and the strong bay breezes
which strike here in their direct path from
the Golden Gate, will make this country in
the near future the richest and most enjoy.
able part of the State to live in, and where
more to sustain life, in man and beast, car
be produced from a few acres than in any
other portion of the New World.